I smell leather

I'm sitting on my bed and I keep getting the smell of leather. I don't know where it's coming from but I'm loving it. At the same time I'm bothered because I don't know what's giving out the smell!!!

Got my Birkenstocks today =D Mum will not be pleased to see it since she detests slippers. I'm not too bothered because now I can shop walk comfortably for miles and miles in them.

Have you ever wanted something but something else keeps coming your way instead of the thing you really want?
It's like playing tetris. You keep hoping for the long brick to turn up and before you know it the game is over.

Also, this is going to be really gross (especially for the guys).
I've discovered that our lashes are like sand and our eyes are like oysters, and our eye goo is like pearl.
Girls who wear heavy eye makeup will usually have goo that's the colour of their makeup, so it's usually black/grey/greenish because of the black eyeliner that we use.
It is disgusting. We're all accustomed to yellowish eye crap but black crap?!
So anyway I was rubbing my eyes when I saw this long strip of black eye goo on my finger. I decided to pull it and parts of the goo came away to reveal a goo-covered eyelash.
So an eyelash had been stuck in my eye and my eye thinking that it's dirt was producing discharge to ..... make a pearl out of it?
Anyway highly disgusting.
I'm going to shower. Tata.

Updating because I'm waiting

Some spare time while waiting for my batchgirl to tell me it's ok to leave my house to meet her. She's waiting for the cleaner to finish cleaning her place. I also want a cleaner!

So I forgot to mention that I FELL in my 3.5 inch heels in front of my new friends last night T___T There were 6 of us there. All I met just last night!

I must attest that I am perfectly capable of walking in heels that high. I could possibly even sprint in them. It happened like this: I was standing on a kerb while waiting for them to decide on their mode of transport home. I already knew mine so I was just looking around for a cab when I stepped down and *KAPABOOM*. :(
I stepped on a small rock/large stone. I swear man, if the Singapore government are chasing after those guilty of killer litters, they should also go after construction companies who leave stones like this everywhere! (There was a minor renovation going on at that block.)
To make matters worse I was in a dress.
Super unglam! This will go down into my long list of embarrassing incidents FML.

Consolation: if Jessica Stam can take a fall, you can too.

Was also just listening to Peter Andre declaring that Anshii makes his heart go boom. Still makes me chuckle whenever I hear that line in 'Flava'.

I also think I'm going to remain single all my life. I'll live with my gadgets and be happily ever after.
It's so typical of me. I meet people but then I never want to go out with them again.
Two guys from last night already asked me out again. One texted me last night after he sent me back. I can tell you straight I don't trust this guy. Not because he works for the foreign trade and industry ministry of Singapore but because he parties too much with our Japanese stewardesses. Another one just texted me and said he's coming to Pasir Ris this evening. I said I'll be in town with my batchgirl (which is true) and then he said he's flexible on location.
But I think I don't wannt meet him... not in the mood man...

Thinking of a new fragrance to get. I'm slightly bored of my current Bvlgari Rose Essentielle. I'm using 3 100ml bottles simultaneously, if that's not crazy I don't know what is. It's still a wonderful womanly scent but there has to be something that will blow me (and anyone who walks past me) away!

I'm so hungryyyyyyyyyy my batchgirl's cleaning lady better hurry up!!

Barbie's new wardrobe

Check out the Dolly Forever for Barbie collection by a certain designer.

(hint: the shoe soles)

Soon enough

I've not been to Paris for a long long time now. Very close to a year. I remember the trips I make based on my purchases wtf.

Hopefully, very soon I'll be returning to the city. There's toooooooo many things that I've not done in Paris. It'll take many more trips to finish all of it. At the top of it (and most likely not the first to be accomplished) will be a visit to Versailles. The reason being I need a better camera to capture the beauty of it. I'm too poor to buy a new camera and I'm not even talking about a DSLR. Waiting for Panasonic to find a successor to the LX3...

By the middle of this year I should be done with training for the new aircraft.
I hope my first solo is to Paris!

Paris je t'aime.

It all starts with one

Tonight I got to meet people living in Singapore whom I would probably never have met had I not gone out to meet my ex-lab demonstrator when he was in town several weeks ago.

Most of these are graduates from Toronto, others from Amsterdam, and all are doing very well here. In comparison, I'm just a nobody when I put their careers next to mine.

Anyway it was all good exposure. At least I know I really can't stay flying the friendly skies for too long!

Already looking forward to hanging out with these people again soon... These old people make me feel like an adult :P (I'm the youngest of the whole lot)

p/s: My grandmother wants me to buy her the L'Occitane Rose Hand Cream. Sounds like bad news... You should see how she uses all her creams and lotions. She runs through a tub on herself faster than the city store runs through their sample tubs.

CNN going British

General perception of the difference between BBC and CNN is that while both channels give you non-stop news coverage, the former is British and the latter is American. Previously it was distiinguishable by the accents of the newscasters/presenters.

However in the last year I have noticed that CNN is increasingly British especially when they recruited Myleen Klass of Liberty X fame (I think they won a TV reality show to become a professional singing group). Myleen was less famous in the UK, more often than not appearing in the newspapers for the wrong reasons. I was most surprised to see her become a permanent face at CNN for her programme 'Screening Room'.

Last night I had a feeling that all the hosts, correspondents and newcasters were speaking with a British accent so I told myself that today I was going to count how many percent of those that came on spoke with a British accent.
I guess it was easier to keep track of how many who didn't come on with a British accent!

From the various presenters of World Sports, to World Report to Connect The World to Quest Means Business.... in the 6 or so combined hours that I was tuned in to CNN today, only TWO presenters spoke with an American accent, out of the more than ten presenters that came on.
E.g. the host of yesterday's Connect The World was a man who was extremely British and today's female host is also undeniably British. Same show, different hosts, same British accent, but on CNN.

What's going on?

I love Burberry's house check

Anyway Christopher Bailey is a genius, that's all I can say.And pulling Emma Watson in for their advertising campaign was the best thing Burberry could have done for themselves. Most people agree with me that Emma Watson makes everything look good and it just makes me want to buy everything she's wearing and carrying -____-

Found out over breakfast that I can go to the U.S. after all. My company made us 2 visas, one for crewmen (class C1/D) and the other for business/pleasure/medical visits.
But the sucky news is that I still have to pay more than a thousand quid to fly to NY. FML.
Was also warned against travelling to Barcelona on my own. Just as two colleagues were telling me that Barcelona is not safe for a girl travelling on her own, another colleague who was flipping through the latest issue of Cleo tapped on my shoulder and showed me a page with the headline, "I got robbed in Spain!". *pout*


Desperately looking for 2 items:
1) case for my keys - sick of my keys scratching everything in my bag. It even scratched my sister's new iPod which was on loan to me.
2) small wallet for my clutch/small handbags.

Euro currency has hit a new low, thanks to the chaos in Greece. Why can't it happen 3 months later, like in July! Now do I buy 2000 Euros to safekeep till July? I wish mum and Anlynn could just go to Singapore this weekend and help me with my decision on a certain something. Then I can make my purchase in advance while the Euro is still low! (hint: Lynn, make a trip soon?)

There's always hope

Who knew...

I discovered that I can go online with the TV when I discovered a wireless keyboard in a drawer, ah ha!
Now I'm propped against the bed writing this with the fonts as large as can be because I'm short-sighted. I don't really like using this method though because the scroll on the keyboard sucks, unlike the one in the Beijing hotel where's it's a scroll-ball. This one scrolls way too slow too.
But it's still better than nothing. I can blog, I can check my mail and maybe go on eBuddy. The browser is too simple to do much else. I wanted to watch Youtube videos but there's no sound :(

More complex tasks will have to be carried out on my laptop. Thank goodness another girl uses a Macbook too so I was using her charger to recharge my battery. I can't keep going to her room to borrow her charger so I'll try to minimize my laptop usage.

Two of my colleagues are planning to go to Mount Tit-less Titlis and they kept asking me to go along. I didn't expect anyone to go sight-seeing on this flight so I merely brought a thin jacket. I would so freeze if I were to go. I could have gone down to H&M and bought a thick jacket but I've been thinking of leaving the job lately so I don't want to keep buying things which I can't use when I quit. I don't know, should I go? It's not always that you have crew who want to go to the mountains and I also don't have my charger with me. I would be so bored if I stayed in, right? And this is a long-stay pattern - meaning I can get more rest after I come back from the mountains before I fly back. It's not easy to be rostered this pattern.
But I really don't want to buy another winter coat!!

After grocery shopping today I went to the sauna with a colleague. This is only the second time I've been to one. The first was in Abu Dhabi. OMG there were naked people EVERYWHERE!
When I first stepped into the locker room, I saw a lady stepping out of her panties with her huge huge ass staring back at me. I got a shock. Then I went out to get something and when I came back, I thought I saw a woman who was bending down topless with her boobs all hanging out. I wasn't wearing my glasses/contact lens so I thought I saw wrongly. Then I asked my colleague in Malay if that woman was topless and she said yes. Culture shock man!
To go to the sauna we had to walk through the shower area and there are no doors, just cubicles and I was blinded. Just blinded. All the fatties with the huge tittles and huge asses all over the shop!
A handful had bodies worth looking at but I can't care less about most.
Gee I still can't get over the whole incident. Luckily there was a spare sauna just for my colleague and myself because the first one we came to had a room full of naked women sweating it out. Us in our bikinis must look ultra conservative to those women. :S


OK I think I wanna go to Barcelona this holidays. No visa rquired =D

Men have lost their carnal instincts

If it is that common for Googlers to ask how to make love, no wonder they're not getting pregnant!

****!

STUCK IN ZURICH FOR 3 FULL DAYS WITHOUT MY LAPTOP CHARGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(*!@*!(@!(&!()_&$*#&$*(#@)_!*#)_!!

Was suppose to do some research on holiday destinations and watch 4 seasons of Entourage.

Now all I can do is watch PayTV bah!

Why can't the world be as one

Realized that my US visa comes under the work category and I can't use it for my own travels.

This means that I have to cross out LA and NY from my possible holiday destination list.

Bah!

Terror in Mumbai

Heigh-ho it's home from work we go

I am.......... deeply humbled.

I worked with possibly one of the richest man in the country, with a garage full of fast cars.

Yet he was so very extremely humble and nice and helpful. I swear nobody would ever guess he is so loaded if not for the rumours that have long been going around. The only giveaway was his accent and impeccable English.

I have no words to describe what it feels like to know that this is the guy and he knows his thankyous, sorrys and pleases. He'll ask you how your day was even before you have the chance to do so. He cannot say his thanks and sorry enough and runs all over the place to make sure you don't have to.
He uses a regular luggage so that it doesn't make others uncomfortable or suspicious of his wealth. His wallet is expensive, but worn-out. His watch costs probably under $100.
From his outlook and his personality, I can only say that he is ****incredibly**** humble.

Conclusion: Everything I heard about him, is true.

Moving on, I'll be making a short trip home. Back to see my cousins and an uncle who's still in BP. I lub my family beli much!

Speaking of family, I managed to have a delicious dinner at my aunt's in Sydney. I can't remember the names of the dishes but I have the impression that every dish is from a different culture. The chicken was Portugese, that's all I remember! I was too dead tired from the overnight flight to do much in Sydney. Was glad to have been able to catch-up even for a while :)

Also, we had yee sang onboard! It was on their trays as starter so everyone got one. Like what an uncle said - how much higher can you possibly toss the yee sang than at 38,000 ft?
My supervisor was also very cute. We don't usually carry mandarin oranges onboard (they're usually the navel kind) but because it's CNY and we had quite a few of it, he went to every galley with two oranges to 'bai nian'.

Take care my readers. I ought to be very busy over the next two days and will not be blogging.

p/s: Did you believe Tiger Woods' apology?

Explain

Why is it that when we want something so badly, God has to make it even harder to get?
Just makes us feel like giving up.


p/s: I went to Toys R'Us today and bought Twister!!! All are welcome to my place to play now. It's no Wii but it'll still be fun.

It's a hot night

but tonight I will sleep like I have never slept before...

Sprayed the sleep aromatherapy pillow mist. Applied the sleep aromatherapy body lotion.
All ready for a deep snooze... G'night.

My Chinese New Year 2010

It's the second day of the lunar new year and I'm eating McDonald's in my room in SG. This sucks.

I'm sure there's an endless spread of food back home!

CNY was fun although too short for me.
I barely caught up with my relatives on mum's side. Finally had some time to spend with them second-half of yesterday - in the end I had to miss out on my high school mates' gathering.
Win some, lose some.


Dad managed to get his hand on fireworks... We needed a large area to set it off so my cousins from my dad's side came to my maternal grandma's place to set it off.



It was a real laugh because we were clueless and mind you, that was highly explosive material!
After it went off, we declared the 'casino' open, and then we proceeded to my new place (just next door) to gamble.


That's the pro (in white) teaching the clueless (in green).



Unfortunately we couldn't play on till late because The God Of Gambler had more pressing matters to attend to early in the morning while I also had to go home to pack. My cab came at 7.30 a.m. this morning, crazy.

Sucks that my break wasn't longer.
Now I'm beginning to dislike my job because it doesn't allow me to go home for CNYs!

Already planning to make another trip home next weekend before my relatives head back to Aussieland and UK.

Off to Sydney in a short while. Hope to go to Chinatown!

Encourage me and I'll never forget you

Gee, that was a really tough flight coming back. I practically was running in the cabin... How ungraceful is that.
It was full full full load, and it was a day flight. Nobody wanted to sleep and everybody wanted to eat and drink. This wasn't your everyday Dutch flight for sure.

My passenger seated at the last row of the cabin (just in front of the Aft galley) actually came to me, just before the start of the second meal service, asking me for a comment form. He said, "It is a full load and I saw how busy you all have been through out the flight. I just want to write in to let your company know that you all have done a great job."

WHoA, my spirits just soared~
I didn't sleep at all during the rest period because of my one mistake - drinking half a cup of coke with my meal. That's it. For 3 hours I just had a million things racing through my mind and could not sleep. When I went back, I saw how chaotic things were (it was even when I left) - the skeleton crew just couldn't manage the number of requests that were flooding in. I had a drink and was mustering enough courage to walk into the cabin - I know the moment I step out I'll be bombarded with another 10 requests for beer, rum and coke, red wine, white wine, chocolates, etc.

This was the time when this very nice passenger came in, and made all the difference.

I dared to go out to do my things and continue with the second service with much energy, as if I just had an 8-hour rest.

Sometimes, we really need that little bit of encouragement.

Flatter me, and I may not believe you.

Criticize me, and I may not like you.

Ignore me, and I may not forgive you.

Encourage me, and I may not forget you.

- William Arthur Ward

I'm going home!

XOXO


P/S: RIP ALEXANDER MCQUEEN.
P/S/S: Today's the second time I met a Batu Pahat passenger on flight!

Home for CNY

I'm leaving Amsterdam in a while.

Will get off in Singapore and then head off for home. Not sure how bad the jam will be but I betcha if it's really bad you will hear about it here.

My colleagues were ranting at how this year will be their first CNY off. They've never had their CNY leave approved and neither have they been lucky enough to be rostered an offday (after a long flight) like we all have been this time.
We're talking 8 years, 15 years and 20 years of missing CNY with the family.
My one year seems like nothing compared to theirs.

Really looking forward to see my relatives...

Happy Chinese New Year! :)

______________________________________

Happy birthday in advance to Evelyn!!
Tomorrow's gonna be so busy I'm not sure if I'll see you online. You're probably gonna be busy with your baking class too... Enjoy yourself and may your dreams all come true!

It's snowing in Amsterdam

I walked out today into an Amsterdam I have never seen before.

Looks like there was quite a snowfall in the night.

Wind was strong and it was terribly cold. My ears almost fell off. Walked into Accessorize to get something/anything to protect my ears but I guess my ears aren't worth 24.99 euros so I left.


I ended up going into some of the shops that I went to yesterday again, this time with my colleagues.
Initially the plan was to go to LV in the morning, then I'll have time for myself to go to a museum in the afternoon. My colleagues were so engrossed in the shopping at The 9 Streets that by the time we walked over to the high-end shopping area, it was already 2 p.m.

It was a fruitful trip. Chanel, LV and Burberry.
Burberry is, erm if you'd have expected, mine.

Regret a little for not buying the item during my San Francisco flight. It's true ok people, buy your Burberrys in the U.S. Will slap myself if I get another States flight next month.

There's always a next time for Rijksmuseum I suppose.

p/s: I was in Milan just last month when I bought my luggage and helped a friend get a wallet at LV. I just checked the website and the prices have gone up again wtf. Ok, maybe not so wtf since I just missed the price hike.

In point form

* ohemgee! I ate pork today - and I actually enjoyed it. The entire set of crew including the pilots - not a single one missed out - went to the popular joint among crew for spare ribs. The crew were salivating at the thought of the ribs on the plane already and that's why everyone turned up. Anyway I ordered chicken. The spare ribs looked so delicious and out of 16 of us, more than half ordered the ribs. It has to be good right? So I tried a tiny piece and it was really good. So my colleague gave me one of the ribs and I finished it... 'Twas really yummy.

* Had only ventured out for less than 100m from the hotel this afternoon and I was so tempted to turn back. I told myself I couldn't possibly make it to H&M (about another 100m away) without freezing to death. It was that cold.

* Zara's winter coats are going real cheap. In fact I was tempted to try on one or two - until the words of my cousin Shu Shin ("You see lah, this is what happens when you buy Zara. That's why you must buy from Burberry....") after a particular incident came back to haunt me... and that was enough to make me walk away from the winter coat section.

* I actually saw a few nice handbags at Zara. I like :)

* I'm really a sucker for scarves. I can't even use them on a regular basis in Singapore, and how often do I go to somewhere cold? Yet I really can't get enough of them and I can't stop buying them HELP!!!

* Went to the concierge. Seems like there's not much to do when it's this cold. I signed up for the Louis Vuitton tour with my colleagues. We are our own tour guides wtf.

* I really love the fashion here. If only, if only, Singapore's as fun as this place then people in Singapore can dress up like this too, weather permitting.

* I've decided to go to Rijksmuseum after the LV tour. By the end of tomorrow I'll feel a lot more cultured.

Reminds me of UP!

I love this picture... And it's got amazing details too.

Go put your records on

Been in a good mood for a while now. Probably since my HK-San Francisco flight?

Just touched down in Amsterdam less than 2 hours ago. Feels great to be back. The stretch of houses along the road of my hotel is GORGEOUS. Can't wait for the sun to be out...
It's -4 celcius right now and will reach a high of 2 degrees. The consolation is that the skies will be clear so it's gonna be a beeyoooootifool day.

I want to go to Legoland... but so cold lah! How to be outdoors for long like this?
I'll probably go shopping today and either Legoland/museums tomorrow.
Or maybe LV. I hate it when my colleagues say they want to go to LV. Hate it even more when I want to tag along. I have this love-hate thing with myself, do excuse me.

Off to get some rest first. Niteynite :)

Ninja Turtles vs. Classical Artists

I think this is pretty cool!







I totally LOL-ed at the Malevich and Picasso ones. I remember taking a mickey out of Picasso by doodling humans with disproportionate facial features that were also grossly misplaced in between classes in school.

This week I do intend to visit either the Rijksmuseum or the Van Gogh museum. It's too cold in Amsterdam to do much else...

Random photos

It's been a while since I did a random photos post. Since I'm trying to stay awake till 4 a.m., I'll try to kill some time doing this.



1) With a Christmas tree in Tivoli Gardens, the oldest amusement park in the world. I loved every minute that I was there...




2) With Shing Wei at Vivocity. We both did the marathon that same morning. You can see the construction of Resorts World Sentosa (owned by Genting) in the background. In the foreground, are of course, two of the sweetest girls in the world hahahahahahaha ok i joke :P



3) Christmas lightings of Oxford Street, London. I really love the brollies. I don't suppose umbrellas are usually associated with Christmas but when you're in London umbrellas just become a part of your everyday life.




4) Jun Hui smiling for the camera!! This photo could be worth a lot in future since he's super shy with the camera. He knew I was pointing the camera at him but he was too shy to look my way so he was smiling to the TV... dumbdumb.



5) I ordered my lunch with this vending machine in Osaka. :-D




6) Riding a camel in a desert in Dubai. Nabihah and I were unlucky enough to have chosen this PMS-ing camel. Thank goodness it was muzzled because I know that camel was capable of hurting us that day. It was in a real foul mood. It was fun though it lasted only 3 minutes or so.




7) The cutest expressway signboard in the world...

7th day and loving it

This could be the best February ever!

=)

Burned

I had a really great day :)
Day was really packed but it was a memorable day...

Went to the Airshow with Julia.
I put a lot of sunblock on my arms and legs but still I became a lot darker... I forgot to put sunblock on my chest and neck and this was what happened:



Definitely worth going to... =)
I think there were easily 20000 people there.

Organisers did a fantastic job. Malaysia would never be able to handle it this way, given the capacity. Sad to say.

Nevertheless, Julia and I were always excited to see the fourteen stripes. Be it on planes/copters or plastered across a balcony.

I hate needles

I hate needles because they hurt me.
Be it syringes or sewing needles I have no love for them whatsoever.
I'm a little ashamed to say I still let my mum sew a button or clasp. If I really cannot be bothered, then the unfortunate piece of clothing will be left in the wardrobe and never be worn again.
Had my blood withdrawn today for the second time in a month. The fella who took my blood today lacked the skills of the guy from behind my house (Pathlab). I could have shrieked but I gave him face because he told me before he poked me, "Ok don't worry it's not going to hurt. After I'm done you can tell me if I'm good or not."
Hurt like mad but I still managed to compose myself and told him he did very well.
Ah the lies I tell after joining the service industry...

Flying to Colombo tonight. I'm gonna put aside prejudice and give my very best tonight. Most of the young ladies probably look the same, and hence will probably look like someone... I'll still do my best. My Colombo flights have always been great, I'm sure this one will be too :)

Relief tastes like strawberry

Ohmama!

I almost had to miss Chinese New Year!! By a strange twist of fate, I was asked to renew my employment pass and had to have my medical checkup done by Feb 12. Before that, I'll have to collect a letter from the training centre first.
And that is how I decided to come back to Singapore a little bit earlier so that I can go back to the office to collect the letter, before my standby starts at midnight tonight.

When I was at the office this morning, I told the officer that I will go for my medical whenever (within these few days) and that by Chinese New Year, the report should be out and I will go down to the Ministry of Manpower on the 18th to do the necessary. The officer immediately made an appointment with MOM on the 18th for me. (p/s: All the government ministries are very anal about missing your appointments.)
So the appointment was made, and the appointment slip was also printed out.

1 hour later, while shopping with my housemate, I called to see if I've been activated for flight.

I had been hoping they'll call me up for a short flight, or a turnaround... anything, as long as my Amsterdam is not disrupted so that I can go home for Chinese New Year.

Turns out that they put me on the longest possible flight we have - 11 days altogether W.T.F.
It would leave at 2.20 a.m. later and I would come back only on the 15th, meaning I miss my Amsterdam, I miss Chinese New Year, I miss Sydney (which was suppose to be 15-17th) and because my offdays stretch till 19th, I would have to miss my Perth (19th-21st) too. And because of that, they put me back on standby on 20th and 21st. I was most pissed about having to miss CNY Eve and CNY, and then missing Sydney to continue with my CNY celebrations.

On my last flight, all my colleagues told me not to worry about my current standby because they said usually long flights (i.e. my Amsterdam) will not be disrupted - so most likely I'll get a turnaround.

WELL WELL, THEY DID IT BECAUSE THEY GAVE ME AN EVEN LONGER FLIGHT!

Honestly, on any other day, this would have been a dream call up. The allowance for this flight is as much as that of 10 Aussie flights... I had to decide - money or family.

In the end, I decided that this won't do.
So I called the control centre and said that this wasn't fair because they disrupted my CNY off. The lady asked me to call one level up, but the One Level Up was not at all helpful.
"If all the crew want to maintain their flights then who are we going to call?" Errr, those who are on standby without Chinese New Year off? We have hundreds of crew who are on standby every day!

So I hung up.

Very very angry.

Could not enjoy my Jap lunch... then it occured to me that if I go for my new flight then I can't do my medical check up and without that I cannot fulfil my appointment on the 18th. Meanwhile, my work pass is expiring pretty soon.

Then Julia gave me an idea *ting! lightbulb*

I called my HR, got the guy whom I met this morning and got him to write an email for me. I told him to half-lie, saying that I must go for my medical appointment tomorrow morning and I have an appointment with MOM on the 18th.

Thankfully I had decided to go see the HR guy this morning - which was just an hour before they activated me. Thankfully we made an appointment for the 18th there and then. Thankfully I have the print slip which has the time-stamp proving that this was all done before I was called up. Thankfully my employment pass is expiring soon!

Shortly after, they took me off the flight and put me back on standby *groan*.
The only bonus is that instead of a full day standby for 5th, I was given a half-day standby (because I've to see a doc in the morning).

Still won't do. It's still too dangerous, and my Chinese New Year trip home was still hanging by a thread.

I spent the next 3.5 hours sitting in front of the laptop, trying to contact all the crew who were doing 'lousy' turnaround flights over the next two days. I was willing to do their 'lousy' flights if they'd take my turnaround.

All gave me negative answers :(

Then at 7 p.m. they activated me for the turnaround flight that I kept praying for - COLOMBO!
It will take away my two days of standbys on 5th and 6th (because I depart 5th night and arrive back on 6th early morning). Then I still get to go for my airshow at 10 a.m. and then on the 8th to AMSTERDAM!!!! *LOVES*
And Sydney and Perth! Ali and Timo, I'm still gonna see ya'll :)


That's when I went to the fridge to grab a strawberry which Julia just brought back from Fukuoka - tastes extremely sweet and juicy :)

Singapore Airshow

I want to go, I want to go!!!

I have standby duty on 5th and 6th BLUERGH they better not disrupt my Amsterdam because then it'll disrupt my Chinese New Year break and I promise to be nasty if that happens!

The SG Airshow is open to public on the 6th and 7th... Me wants to go! And hopefully I see Mr. S there. Mr. S was on my flight to the airshow and he works for one of the largest plane-makers in the world... He was very nice and gave the crew some souvenirs. Oh did I mention that he's very cute too ;-)
Julia and I are definitely keeping our fingers crossed because we're not going without each other.

Went with grandma to Malacca today for an eye checkup. The doctor confirmed that she has cataract in both eyes. The operation will be done next month. Saw elderly people in the clinic with many eye problems.
Recently also heard of two stories of my friends' grandparents and their failing health.

So afraid of growing old.

Also have to go back to office to pick up a letter and then do a medical checkup after that to renew my employment pass. I really dislike needles :( Hopefully this will be the last time I have to renew my EP.

Next week is Chinese New Year already. I was quite surprised this trip home to see that nothing's quite ready for the biggest celebration of the year (in my household, at least). Spring-cleaning's not done. Most of the ingredients for reunion dinner have still not been bought. Goodies which we normally exchange with relatives are also not ready. No soft drinks in the house. No new curtains??
So strangely relaxed this year.

Amazonian post

1) Amazon dot co dot uk is where I buy DVDs that I can't get here. It's cheap (there's always an offer you can't beat) and delivery charges are fair. Delivery time is more than prompt too. I also like buying it from there because most of the time they will dispatch DVDs of Region 0 to me knowing that I'm outside the U.K. However this is only when they have Region 0 DVDs available. Anyway if I were to buy a rare DVD in the UK itself it'll definitely be in Region 2.... hence I count on Amazon UK to give me the Region 0 discs that I need. Also I've come to conclude that the offers on Amazon UK are better than Amazon (US), with cheaper shipping charges.

The point here is, last week I mentioned that I made the purchase of my Boyzone DVD boxset. It arrived this morning in perfect condition, except for a tiny problem. And to be honest, this problem was my own fault by far. Every single detail of the DVD was stated clearly on the product listing page... Yet in my moment of 'keh-kiang' (pretending to be clever) I assumed it wouldn't be a problem and placed my order.

I wrote a quick letter to Amazon and 15 minutes later, Usha M of Customer Service wrote me a long reply. The essence of the reply is that.... Amazon will refund my money to me and I get to keep the DVDs since it's too expensive to ship it back to them.
Is their customer service good or what!!!! I'll definitely be buying from them for a long time to come... They've got me hooked on them.


2) Amazon KindleDX (a.k.a. Kindle2). On my SanFran-HK flight, a lady was reading on her KindleDX. Spoke to her for a while regarding her new toy. I raised the problem of not having enough storage space. Really, as if we're gonna be able to read 1500 books in our lifetime! But one has to look at life's what ifs. My passenger said that Amazon keeps a copy of the e-books we buy. So we can basically delete the books from our Kindle if it's running out of space and then should we feel like reading the books again, we can always redownload from Amazon for free. Very wise! I guess it's only a matter of time before I get on my hands on one. 5 years more maybe, if the exhorbitant price remains!

Elie's back!

The latest Elie Saab Haute Couture collection rocks!!!
After a dismal few collections IMHO, this season he's bringing sexy back.

See the collection here.

All the bitchin'

Ah, good to be back.
I had a great set of crew (one was a nut case in a good way...), was in two of the greatest cities in the world, had awesome food, superb shopping and yeah I had to check-in two bags (on top of the two cabin bags that I have oooops).
It's good that it's come to an end though because there were conflicts with two crew. I'm fine with them but more than half the set could not stand the two and there was too much bitching and after eight days, I CANNOT TAKE IT ANYMORE!
It's so hard to work like this because there's only us up there as a team, trying to provide a service to hundreds of people and their requests. Especially in economy, 6 crew for 226 passengers. Although there's aft and forward, it's still ONE ZONE. And when there's a problem with the head of the crew, you know it gets tougher for it affects every zone.

Can't wait to unpack and show my family their goodies!! Well, I think it's mostly for the small one - she has so many new clothes *jealous*.